i saw this article pop up in my search a few days ago and it got me really excited! so i'm sharing it with the rest of you critters on cohost!!

in short, there is concrete evidence that suggests 'conscious experience' can be observed in a much wider breadth of species than previously thought, including cephalopods, crabs, and insects! it also suggests that such conscious experience is likely present in all vertebrate species, bringing reptiles, amphibians, and fish into the fold alongside mammals and birds.

the findings are based on several studies, and are the backing for the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, unveiled at a one-day conference on the subject earlier in April, and signed by numerous experts in related fields.

and now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to ramble a bit about the topic myself!

rechosting to share this, but i would also like to take a moment to make the distinction between "consciousness", "sentience", and "sapience". i'm not trying to be a buzzkill (i love seeing news like this too!), nor am i implying you don't already know (i'm not an expert either), i just want to clarify for anyone reading this who might not know. we've known for some time that many kinds of creatures likely possess basic "consciousness", which just means that they are capable of having experiences. it's a much lower form of cognition than "sapience", which generally refers to the ability to use reason and metacognition (to know what you know, think about what you know, and think about how you think), and to be self-aware. "sentience" is kind of inconsistently defined and can mean various things along this spectrum.

this article and the events described within don't demonstrate any new breakthroughs or anything, it's primarily just about the Declaration^[1] basically promoting the concept to an accepted theory - in the scientific sense of the word, with strong support from existing literature. i'm honestly surprised that it's taken this long for something like this to happen, considering we've been debating the presence of consciousness in plants since at least the 70's^[2].

however, as far as i am aware, we don't yet have any evidence to support simpler animals such as insects displaying sapience, metacognition and self-awareness, something we have observed in say, corvids^[3]. (i will take any opportunity to talk about how smart birds are) that being said, with the way things have been headed lately, i wouldn't be surprised to see evidence of this in the future. humans have never given animals enough credit.

lastly, i'd like to highlight this quote from the article, which seems especially relevant:

We have much more in common with other animals than we do with things like ChatGPT.

i do think it's safe to say that your average bumblebee displays more intelligence than ChatGPT.

citations below the break.

[1] Various Authors. The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness. New York University. Apr. 19 2024. [link]

[2]: Nagel, A. Are Plants Conscious? Journal of Conscíousness Studies, 4, No. 3, 1997, pp. 215-30. [link] [archived]

[3] Begley, S. Brainiacs, not birdbrains: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute. STAT News. Sept. 24, 2020. [link] [archived]